I would buy this in a heart beat….The System Fusion repeater, radio's are fantastic and feature rich. The FT2DR is just a step up in the ability of using an HT to take advantage of those features. Yaesu hit it out of the part with the System Fusion and were D-Star has never been widely accepted by Amateurs, I suspect by the end of 2015 you will see Fusion users out numbering D-Star users 3 t0 1. So I suspect that the new FT2DR will be well accepted and a big seller among HT users.
Wow. And here I thought the radio was another innovative product from Yaesu catering to a certain HAM demographic. Thanks for setting me straight with an unbiased opinion
As most of those in the ham radio community. All the major brand radio manufactures always try to up one on each other. I have been a Yeasu person for a long time. Some things I think they could do better. But as stated previously They do do market research before they release a new piece of equipment. As to where they do the research is a good question. Over all I am very satisfied with the equipment I have. One finial point I can add is to do your your own research to see what you can: afford, the features you want to use. and what and where you plan to use the equipment. 73 KC7FPF
Yaesu keeps pushing their Fusion, even though actual use is extremely limited, at least in the US. There are too many non-fusion based radios out there, including many new Yaesu radios (like FT1900R, FT2900R and others). Yaesu has their Fusion, Icom (and now some Kenwoods) their D-star, and so on. With the new younger generation of hams coming in, I suspect many of these technologies will go by the way side as we will prefer a broad widely used mode that covers most radios, and not some proprietary limited scope system. There will always be a small niche that will use these alternate options, but wide scale adoption seems unlikely, so use will be very limited just because of the sheer number of incompatible systems out there. Us younger generation have been testing the waters with options like Echolink, that is free, open source, and non-proprietary.
I believe, and I say I believe that D-Star and non-D-Star can connect via a reflector....the PAPASYS in Cali has one. Someone please correct me if I am wrong. My point is that I thought why have a segregated system that does not allow amateurs to connect without changing HW/protocol etc. If I saw this correctly soon these systems will be able to talk to each other. I have not played with digital enough to see the benefits but with any increase in the number of users and where bandwidth becomes an issue (high density population), perhaps digital is a good way to go. So my point is that these alternate systems may not be segregated anymore with networking.
Fusion Repeaters have only been for sale since mid summer 2014 and already they are springing up everywhere, while I was fortunate to have been an BETA tester for Yaesu Fusion and an early adopter….I now have 3 of the repeaters setup in the region and am working on linking them…..I am aware of 4 more Fusion Repeaters in the region that are in the works…. Honestly Icom wishes D-Star had taken off as strong as System Fusion. Yaesu hit one way out of the park with this protect…and FT2DR is just one more revision in a rapidly improving product and a fast growing……new mode.
There are no Kenwood D-Star radios sold in the U.S. For a time, Kenwood sold a re-badged Icom IC-800 mobile in the Japanese market, but that radio was never officially sold in the U.S.
I own and use a IC-9100 with D-Star for over a year, I have had D-Star in my mobil for over 3 years. In and around my area you can count the number of D-Star users on your hands and feet. I have in 3 years made maybe 30 minutes of D-Star contacts and just never found it useful or enjoyable. When the information started coming out on System Fusion something that never happened to me with D-Star…I became interested in this system….it actually reached out and grabbed me. I was fortunate to become a BETA Tester for Yaesu System Fusion and so upgraded my local repeater to the new Fusion March of 2014. Honestly I feel in love right away with System Fusion….and within 3 weeks my wife and I upgraded both our car and truck to FTM-400's and purchased a 3rd one for our home. For awhile it was just her and I talking on it, then slowly a couple more early adopters…. Then mid summer…..Yaesu released the repeaters for sale to the general public….DEMAND IS SO HIGH that they are actually back ordered for clubs, and San Antonio which is slow as molasses to move to new technology {no matter what it is…from cell phones, to Television, etc}…..I am seeing dozens of new Fusion users joining our repeater. The BEST part is that Yaesu did it right….allowing Analog and Digital to mix….so people are NOT forced to leave a repeater if it is taken Digital….they can blend. Not only have I now installed and setup 3 repeaters in San Antonio and around the region…but two other clubs have upgraded already just out side of San Antonio and one of the larger local clubs are waiting patiently for the back orders to be filled and the Fusion head to them. With the System Fusion really only going on sale a few months ago…….we have seen the number of Digital capable users grow dramatically…..from just my wife and myself to just under 20, I am aware of another half dozen and these are just people I know. Already the Fusion users out number D-Star users in the area. Personally if you do not care for what Yaesu is coming out with, unhappy you went D-Star and now find you wish you had waited…that is all great….. But if you truly sit down and play with the new Fusion….you are going to be wanting one. Just stop and give this some thought…EVERYONE KEEPS SAYING HOW FEW USERS THERE ARE, HOW LIMITED REPEATERS the number of repeaters are, etc. IT'S ONLY BEEN ON THE MARKET FOR 3 MONTHS…What do you expect?
Since this forum is not run by the federal government, your "Constitutionally protected opinions" are not protected here. The 1st Amendment the U.S. Constitution only applies to actions by the U.S. Congress. Elecraft seems to have the high-profile DXpedition market wrapped up recently. Five of the six radios used by the top three teams at WRTC 2014 were Icoms. Only one Yaesu appears in the top 10 of Rob Sherwood's receiver tests. Kenwood seems to have lead the way with field-upgradeable firmware in their mobiles and handhelds. Only Kenwood APRS radios allow full access to the internal TNC so the radios can be used with external APRS applications or as general-purpose packet radios. I'm not all that impressed by Yaesu's "track record".
According to their website, Yaesu is selling their new digital repeaters for as little as $500 each to clubs; coupled with the fact that the new repeaters (theoretically, at least) can act as well-behaved drop-in replacements for aging analog repeaters, their strategy seems right on for bootstrapping System Fusion. Of course, I'd feel a lot more confident about their future prospects if another major (or even minor) manufacturer jumped on the C4FM bandwagon.
Give it time….Were D-Star never was widely adopted and remained more or less a specialized mode….for people who really wanted to play with Digital, Yaesu with it's club program and price structure, the quality of the radio's and the absolute ease of use and smooth merging of Analog with Digital, I see a day in the very near future where a large number of repeaters out there are replaced with Yaesu Fusion Repeaters. The more repeaters that are upgraded to Fusion, the more people that will jump into purchases of Fusion Radio's. As such other manufactures who do not want to be left behind…..will start providing compatible rigs... I am really not a fan of repeaters and for years lived by the motto that "Real Hams do not need no stinkin Repeaters" and think that simplex is the way to operate, but as an BETA tester and early adopter of Fusion, I have found myself in the strange position of putting up 3 Fusion Repeaters and working to link they to provide solid coverage in and around San Antonio and the communities that surround us. Eventually I will start playing with Fusion in Simplex as more people get them….. I never got interested in D-Star nor any of the other Digital modes that popped up……But I like Fusion and am a die hard fan of it……I am would be willing to bet that this becomes the standard a few years down the road and you start seeing Analog fade out as more and more users adopted C4FM
Actually, it provides protection from ALL branches of the Government trying to trample individual rights. It has been ratified into the various State's Constitutions as a matter of adoption of Statehood. It has also been further implied as to provide certain CIVIL protections of free speech, too. If you're going to go off-topic in an effort to demonstrate your greater comprehension of Constitutional law, at least have the temerity to be be as accurate as your ego portends. Steve, K4YZ
Yaesu website states water resitant IPX5 and has TNC and GPS built in. http://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cm...3F343581B53E9FAB40&DivisionID=65&isArchived=0
